Family to hold symbolic funeral for missing Sulaimani migrant

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The family of a Kurdish man missing after the boat he was on sank off Greek waters on Thursday are now holding a symbolic funeral for their son, claiming that they are now sure that he has drowned.

The boat carrying around 45 migrants sank off the coast of Crete. Despite the majority of people being rescued, including 17 Kurds, eight Kurds are still missing: seven from the Kurdistan Region and another from Iran’s Kurdish areas, known as Rojhelat.

Peshawa Rashid was born in 1993 in Sulaimani’s Xalakan town. After getting married in 2016 and having a daughter, he and his wife eventually decided to leave the country and headed to Turkey on June 19 in hopes of finding a better life in Europe.

Rashid’s cousin Ranj Omar told Rudaw on Tuesday that Rashid’s parents are now sure that their son has died and are arranging a funeral – held at home due to COVID-19 - to say their final goodbyes. 

“One of my cousins has been in Greece for 17 years. After the incident he went and saw the wife and daughter and they told him that Peshawa drowned in front of their eyes,” he said.

“They are in good health, but his wife is mentally wrecked and is always crying.”

Every year, thousands of Kurds and Iraqi citizens undertake dangerous journeys to Europe by land and by sea in hope of finding a better life abroad.

Last month, the body of a one-year-old Kurdish boy who drowned in the English Channel last October was found more than 900 kilometers away in Norway. Trying to reach the UK, he and his family made the perilous journey from Iran's Sardasht area to the port of Calais in France. He was buried with his family on Friday according to Norwegian media, months after his parents and siblings were laid to rest.

Rashid’s widow, Rahen Pirot, told Omar that the boat was overcrowded – with the smuggler allowing 10 extra people to board. 

In his last voice message sent to his father, Rashid said that they would be boarding a boat to Greece and hoped to reconnect with him once in Europe. 

“They are now taking our phones from us and we are leaving. We might not leave until midnight, but if we no longer have net connection then we have left,” he said in the voice message shared with Rudaw.

Political, economic and social instability is pushing people to migrate at a “dangerous” rate, Ari Jalal, head of the Summit Foundation for Refugee and Displaced Affairs (Lutka) told Rudaw radio in June. 

According to data from the organization, 26,972 Iraqi citizens sought asylum in Europe in the first half of 2021, and five people died en route.  This does not include those under 18.

In 2020 the numbers were considerably lower due to COVID-19 restrictions, but casualties were higher. Out of the 34,000 who migrated in 2020, a total of 35 people went missing or died on the way. Jalal noted it is unclear how many of them are Kurdish migrants as migrants’ ethnicities are not recorded.

Additional reporting by Dilan Sirwan